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Rich Alvarez was relevant last year… when he got married to singing phenom Kyla.
And that’s about it.
Alvarez’ PBA career has been anything but… benchwarmy. Yeah, benchwarmy is not even a real word but that’s the first thing that reminded me of him. Whenever we see Rich barely breaking a sweat, we feel for him. I used to fear he’ll do something wicked when the Ateneo Blue Eagles were terrorizing my University of Santo Tomas and the rest of the UAAP. It is such a shame that his PBA career isn’t making things better for his stature. We all thought that somewhere along the way we will refer to his being as Mr. Kyla.
Then this happened.
I never saw the end of Game Six of the 2011-12 PBA All-Filipino Cup semifinals but I wish I saw it. I had to get dragged by my sister to drive her to her wedding’s food tasting and… where the hell is PBA radio? When I got back at my home I saw the Game 6 recap of the Talk N Text Tropang Texters versus the Petron Blaze Boosters match and there he was – Rich Alvarez playing in the last minute of that all-important game and while he failed to score any baskets, he did deliver the defense when it mattered.
Alvarez might be a liability in terms of scoring. In this conference, his scoring average barely even reaches a point. However his defense is highly-acclaimed. This is why Chot Reyes inserted Alvarez at crunch time. Getting the minutes in a major scenario, it shocked people that Alvarez was in the mix. This is Alvarez’ second game in the series and there are a lot of players ahead of him in the depth chart. Rich will finish the game with no shot attempts, three rebounds, two steals, three fouls, and two turnovers in ten minutes of action.
This stat line has nothing to brag about. However, take in consideration that in crunch time he was instrumental in unleashing his veteran presence against the rookie Chris Lutz and he un-crunched the Crunchman Alex Cabagnot by intercepting his magical play. People are forgetting that long before he became a forgotten man in the pros, he was a player that always had the spot when the game is on the line whether it is for Ateneo or in the PBL via Hapee and Pioneer.
Also, if you look at his build, he basically has the same body as that of Arwind Santos.
Body lang. Hehe.
With the pivotal Game 7 a few days away, I expect Petron to look for a way to mess up Talk N Text and Rich Alvarez is no exception. Petron had a tight rotation in Game 6 and in the series clincher I will be shocked to see Nonoy Baclao, Rey Guevarra, Carlo Sharma, and Marc Agustin getting playing time. Six of their players played 29 minutes and more while TNT only had Jimmy Alapag, Ranidel De Ocampo, and Jayson Castro eclipsing the 29-minute mark. I also believe Petron will try to avoid messing up their mojo like the unnecessary assault Cabagnot did to Ali Peek who in turn walloped the hell out of Joseph Yeo.
Dammit, the guy just survived a gunshot wound…
Moving on…
I doubt if this game will turn his career around. He will still be a benchwarmer regardless of the outcome but at the moment where Harvey Carey is struggling and Kelly Williams is hampered by injury, I expect that Rich Alvarez will use this opportunity to prove to everyone that he can still go and that he is not just Kyla’s husband.
Game over.
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